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29 January 2010

29/01/10

Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven was published in 1845. Karl Benz patented the first successful gasoline-powered automobile in 1886. And in 1979, sixteen year-old Brenda Ann Spencer barricaded herself into a room in her house overlooking Cleveland Elementary School in San Diego, California. Using the .22 calibre semi-automatic rifle that her father had given her for Christmas, she began shooting at children and staff. Eight students and one police officer were injured, the school's principal and a custodian were killed. When asked why she had done it, she replied, "I just did it for the fun of it. I don't like Mondays. This livens up the day."

111 comments:

On Today - David Blunkett sticking up for Blair as a charismatic PM who has been dragged down by the war on Iraq and then saying he, Blunkett, couldn't take the public hatred whereas Blair doesn't care. Mmm.

I'm sorry, dott. I don't actually mean it in the literal sense,using the word not in any way sense or form to denigrate 50% of the population, but simply because it's the strongest word in the English language.Apologies for unintended connotations or offense caused.Let's put it another way: Blair is more offensive even than the c-word, which can offend on almost every level (propriety/decency/liberal sensibility etc etc).

And I stood upon the sand of the sea, and saw a beat rise up out of the sea...and he doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven in the sight of men, and deceiveth them that dwell upon the earth...

BTW - anyone with an ounce of compassion, head for the MR Hall thread and give the soi-disant 'religious' spokesperson (and novelist) a good kicking. Truly vile reasoning going on there. The usual suspects are in full force but the weight of the thread is with the compassionate, thank God.

Yea, and twas like unto shooting fish in a barrel, or peasants in a desert...

Proverbs 17:4 A wicked doer giveth heed to false lips; and a liar giveth ear to a naughty tongue.

Revelation 21:8 But the fearful, and unbelieving, and the abominable, and murderers, and whoremongers, and sorcerers, and idolaters, and all liars, shall have their part in the lake which burneth with fire and brimstone: which is the second death.

Pigs ? I have my Special Forces, Black Ops Swine Unit on standby. They haven't eaten for six days and really f@cking hate anti-democratic, centralising, privatisating warmongers. (Something to do with re-branding after Orwell).

Don't worry, Dot - similar to the idea that there is more than one heaven, I'm pretty certain there's at least two hells. There's the one with all the best tunes, the gay people, the pro-choicers and the socialists, where we're all going, and then there's the other one...

annetan"Life is more wonderful more miraculous and more marvelous than all the words in all the religious books ever written."Now, we may come from different doctrinal standpoints (as a nun once said to me - !) but that hit the nail on the head for me. Maybe MR Hall is so focussed on suffering because he's one of those people who, as they say, 'suffers from his faith rather than celebrates it' - the bible, for me, is guidance, it is not everything - everything includes us, and what we do, what, and who, we are.

princess "I believe that if we say everyone deserves the best life they can get and that everyone absolutely deserves dignity - both in living and dying - then we elevate the human condition"Absolutely bang on.

I'd accept that "shrill cries of racism, bigotry and Islamophobia" must be part of that, but then you should stop making them. That boat has sailed.

In fact, I think you'd have to consider how your own endorsement of extreme right-wing, socially conservative and politically authoritarian regimes - namely Hamas in Gaza and the Mullahs in Iran (you are STILL on Press TV, aren't you?) - have helped diminish the appeal of Respect to the point where Davide Icke could give you a run for your money.

Phillipa - this comment of yours made me laugh out loud. ''Hang on - he felt sorry for America?

He didn't want them to have to go on their own?

Is he talking about international military action or going along on a blind double date with a spoddy mate?''

Peter that David Absolom comment was good.

Philippa - this from Vertical on the Osbourne thread should cheer you up - it made me chuckle. ''nice to see Osborne's still living off his Corfu holiday reading. Next week: the Dan Brown approach to constitutional reform. He owns the Zeitgeist, don't question it.

I've been listening to Chilcott all day and I am, seriously, losing the will to live.

Ah, we thought there'd be a functioning system in Iraq after we'd blown the shit out of it.

Ah, we didn't realise that the insurgents would take advantage of the breakdown in the Iraqi state.

Just didn't see it coming.

Why not? asks polite chappy.

Ooh, well, it's all Iran's fault. And Iraq would have ended up as a terrorist training camp anyway.

I mean, I know they're vicious, hypocritical, power-hungry war-mongers, but were they really that straignt-dow-the-line dumb? Ok, Bush, yes, but Cheney/Rumsfeld were always devious little shits, rather than clinically stupid.

Hometime for the pals - am off to the pub to recover. This may take some time.

Someone's reading out the monthly death figures from violence in the 'reconstruction' period. Genuinely one of the most chilling things I've heard in a while...

What would he say to the Iraqi people?**************We'll carry on with the political process - elections, constitution...

We'll be with you and help you defeat thisMost important - with the bodycount over 100000 in this period - the coalition forces weren't doing the killing. It was the insurgents... They were doing it quite deliberately to stop us making progress.

Our responsibility was to stick in there and see it through...***************

No matter the cost, eh? No matter who took the decision to put their lives on the table? No matter how stupidly you had misunderstood what would happen in the post-saddam vaccuum?

I'm trying hard and flicking through my numerous History books to find another ex PM so utterly detested and reviled by EVERYBODY as Blair.

Obviously for me, Thatcher is no1 but of course she is venerated as St Margaret by large (deluded) swathes of the population, however Blair is a different matter altogether, he is detested universally.

I cannot come across another example in PM history to match the almost total vitriol for Blair.

the only saving grace is the importance Tony has alway put on his legacy.

You just know that no matter how many foundations he sets up, how many non exec posts he takes up, how many middle east 'peace' talks he gives, how many millions he makes on his speaking tours, how many fucking handbags he whores off to businessmen, he lies awake at night futilely wrestling with the gaping, nihilst existentialist void of his own making slowly destroying his heart and soul.

I was bloody disappointed with him too. Mind you, I was disappointed with him at the time he was Home Sec. I would give anything to have him back as Home Sec now, given the lunatics that followed him...

No regrets from Tony. No mention of loss of life, whether British or Iraqi. Although there was a tear-jerking recital of statistics about child mortality rates under Saddam's regime and how much 'better' they are now. Oh, and apparently electricity and per capita income is much better too. What a despicable fucker.

I cannot come across another example in PM history to match the almost total vitriol for Blair.

What seems strange to me is that a lot of people have a LOT more animosity toward Brown. Don't get me wrong, I don't like the bloke, but compared to Blair (whose policies he is following neatly, it must be said), he is an angel.

'What seems strange to me is that a lot of people have a LOT more animosity toward Brown.'

I've thought that as well thauma. My feeling is that just as liberal Americans resent Blair for not being a brake on Bush, so we resent Brown not being a brake on Blair. Goodness he didn't even have a crush on Blair (as Blair did on Bush), so physical desire isn't even a factor.

As for me, I hate Blair much more; he reminds me of the scene in James Blish's The Day After Judgement when a cardinal appears with the ring of Satan on his finger - I do, I do hate him.

Edwin - tbh, I don't think most Americans took any notice whatsoever of what Blair (or Brown) thought of the war. The vast majority of them had no idea who was PM. That particular little power play was for international relations, not internal US ones.

The Americans were in the Fuck yeah! mode and willing to attack any Ay-rabs regardless of whether they'd had anything to do with 9/11. I know, I was living there at the time.

Completely agree with the rest of your post though: Blair has obviously (to me, anyway) had a crush on *ugh* Bush, and is so far more a figure of hate than Brown, who is flawed but human. Blair isn't human: he's evil incarnate.

Thauma: Medve does mean bear in Hungarian and is one the nicknames given to me by the mother of our children. The avatar is a picture of a ceramic figurine leaning against a open box-like brick structure suitable for the storage of pens and pencils. So it is not a noose, but a pencil. I like the avatar because of his gormless expression.

BB - you drinking Bishop's Finger? It's known as Nun's Delight here in the town where it's brewed...Utterly too pissed off with the Chilcot stuff, been a bloody long week so am ignoring it and drinking red. Assume Blair wriggled out of everything as expected...

Thanks Boudican, i suspect you must be resposible for the sole single solitary recommend i have garnered with that retort.

Perhaps unsurprisingly we seem to have similar sentiments on MR Hall. I put something quite nasty on there, but that was before the cranberry liqueurs and the wheat beer, so my memory is a little fuzzy. Time for coffee.

Thank you Medve, but I think I did what most of us would do. No ideal answers here so I did the best I could.

My wife is interested in the cranberry liqueur. My little flower happens to be the manager of the local liquor store (government job, I must disclose) and can request foreign delights. She will be on the case tommorrow.

Boudican: My better half is currently snow bound in an aircraft trying to get to Frankfurt and on to Barcelona. They won't take off until it stops snowing. She brought the cranberry liqueur from Padua last week: Zedda Piras: Mirto di Sardegna. My favourite beer is Hoegaarden Belgian white beer.

Medve, thanks for the info on the cranberry liqueur. My better two thirds is on a cranberry health kick at the moment. Quite prevalent all over north america. I, however, am loyal to good single malt, good tequila, and beers too numerous to mention.--Never had the pleasure of the Hoegaarden Belgian white, but will strive for diversity in hops